A local computer network has been developed for LCP and LMB, NIADDK, in Building 2 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of an integrated laboratory data acquisition and processing system. This network is configured with satellites connected in a star configuration to a host processor. At each satellite a dedicated microcomputer system performs data acquisition from and control over an instrument/experiment. Although acquired data files may be stored locally, they are normally transferred via the network to a host storage medium. The hub of the network, the concentrator, utilizes DMA hardware on all communicating links and performs a file store and forward function. The local network allows the host storage medium to appear as a "virtual" storage device to the satellites.